The Christian Life, Part Two

Ephesians 4:25-32
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, July 25, 2004
Copyright © 2004, P. G. Mathew

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Ephesians 4:25-32

Recently I was listening to a professor of religion, who was recounting his conversation with the leaders of several large evangelical churches. This man was rejoicing at having discovered certain facts from these leaders. To his great delight, they told him, “The key to success in our churches is that we do not preach theology, nor do we speak about sin or repentance. We only preach love, love, love.” I was extremely saddened when I heard this, but it is the correct analysis of what is going on in most Bible-believing churches today. In fact, I heard someone recently say, “In my church, we have great fun, but in your church, you preach the Bible.”

I hope all of us will think carefully about why we come to church. Do we come just to have fun and hear about love, or do we come to hear what the Bible clearly teaches about sin, hell, heaven, and eternal life? I want you to think about these issues as we examine the Scriptures to see whether a person who says he is a Christian can continue in his sin as before.

Can A Christian Continue in Sin?

According to Ephesians 4, the life of a Christian is to be totally different from that of an unbeliever. This is because he has learned Christ, heard Christ, and been taught in Christ; his old self has been crucified with Christ; and, thus, he has put off, once for all, his former manner of life and has put on the new man, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness of the truth. This knowledge of Christ affects all of the believer’s life and ethics. He is made alive and given a new nature. The Holy Spirit dwells in him. He is seated with Christ in the heavenly places, so that, although he lives here on earth, he is also in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Because the believer is a new creation, he now has the freedom and ability to do good works. A Christian is able not only not to sin, but he is also now enabled to do righteousness, doing all things for the glory of God. Before, he hated God and his law, but now he loves God and delights in obeying his law. The unbeliever lives by the uncontrollable desires of deceit, but the Christian lives in the righteousness and holiness of the truth of the gospel. Having put off the old self and put on the new self at his conversion, he is now able to put off specific sin and put on the opposite virtues.

This idea of putting off the old and putting on the new is illustrated by Lazarus, who was buried in graveclothes, as appropriate for a dead body. But when Lazarus was made alive by Christ, his former graveclothes were removed, and new clothes fit for a living person were put on him. Even so, the Christian who has been made alive by Christ abandons the graveclothes of the old lifestyle and puts on new garments. So we are commanded in Ephesians 4:25-32 to put off the old, specific sins, and to put on the new garments of virtue.

There are ten imperatives in this passage. As we examine them, notice that none of them includes an injunction to pray. When you know what the right thing to do is, what should you do? Go and do it immediately! In fact, it is a sin to take time to pray when you already know what you must do. In that case, prayer becomes a delay tactic. So nowhere here are we asked to pray; rather, we are told to do ten specific things.

As we study this passage, I hope we will ask ourselves this question: “Am I going to do exactly what God is telling me to do in this scripture today?” Remember, it is the Holy Spirit of God, through the apostle, who is giving us these commands.

Ten Imperatives for Christians

1. Speak Truth

The first command is found in verse 25. We read in the Greek, “Having put off the lie. . . .” It is an aorist middle participle, meaning a once-for-all action. “The lie” refers to the old graveclothes, the old lifestyle of lying, that once and for all we have thrown out. And then we read the first command: “Speak the truth continually, each one to his neighbor.” It is a present imperative, which means continually, all of our lives, we are to speak truth. So, first there is a negative—”having put off the lie”; then the positive command—”speak truth.” Then we are given an explanation—”because we are members of one another.” The NIV text reads, “for we are all members of one body,” but the Greek text says, “we are members of one another.” Yes, we are members of one body, the body of Christ, but here Paul is saying that we are members of one another: I belong to you, you belong to me, and we are one.

Truth is essential part to the Christian life. The Scriptures tell us that a Christian is one who hears the word of truth (Ephesians 1:13) and is created anew in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Ephesians 4:24). Jesus Christ is truth (John 14:6) and the word of God is truth (John 17:17). The Holy Spirit, who indwells the Christian, is called the Spirit of truth (John 14:17).

Lying is the dead leaf of the old life. As such, it is to be thrown out by the expulsive power of the new life that we have in Christ. This is what true conversion means; a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree difference. A person who is a liar is under the influence of Satan, for Satan is a liar and the father of all lies. The unbeliever, Paul tells us in Romans 1:25, “exchanged the truth of God for a lie.” In Genesis 2:17, when God said, “You shall surely die,” Satan countered with a lie: “You shall not die” (Genesis 3:4). By believing Satan’s lie, Adam and Eve plunged the whole world into death. But, the Bible tells us, God cannot lie (Titus 1:2); God is light and in him there is no darkness (1 John 1:5); truth is in Jesus (John 1:14); and Christians must speak truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). We are also told that liars are specifically excluded from heaven (Revelation 21:8).

When Satan fills a person and controls his heart, that person will lie. Acts 5:3 tells us that Satan filled Ananias and Sapphira, causing them to lie. But the opposite also is true: When the Holy Spirit controls a person and fills his heart, he will speak truth. God desires truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6).

Lying destroys marriage, business, and the church community. Why? Because it destroys fellowship, which is built in on trust, which, in turn, is built on truth. So a lie is a stab at the very vitals of community life. Our word should be our bond. We must keep our promises and no mutual understanding should be violated. The ninth commandment teaches us not to lie but to tell the truth; thus, Christians, who love God and keep his commandments, should not lie.

Additionally, those who trust in God must be trustworthy. A Christian is to speak truth to his neighbor. Who is our neighbor? It is stated right there: “We are members of one another.” This is speaking specifically about the church community. We must speak truth to everyone, but particularly to the community of God. When Ananias and Sapphira disobeyed this command, God himself killed them. Their story is written down for our warning, to demonstrate that God will not tolerate certain sins to exist in the church because they are destructive to community life.

So each believer must continually speak the truth to his neighbor, to his brother or sister with whom he is vitally connected and related, so much so that they are considered one. “Because we are members of one another.” As members of Christ’s body, we are also, therefore, members of one another. John Chrysostom, the great preacher of the fourth century, said that if your eye sees a serpent and lies to your feet, saying that it is simply a stick, not only will your feet die, but your eye will also die. Or if your mouth tastes poison and tells the stomach it is not poison, then not only will your stomach die, but your mouth will die also. When we lie, we not only harm the other person, but we ourselves will suffer damage. That is the argument. Additionally, if we love our neighbor as ourselves, how can we lie to our neighbor? It is impossible.

This idea that we are members of one another is stated very clearly in Romans 12:4-5: “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” You belong to me and I belong to you, and we both belong to Christ. Thus, a lie is harmful both to you and me.

How, then, can a Christian control his tongue and continually speak truth? The answer is found in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.” First, we must open our minds, read the Scripture, and store its truth in our hearts. If we come to church and go to sleep, the word of God will not change us, no matter how many years we may attend. We must let the word of Christ dwell richly in our hearts. We must exercise our minds and study the word of God with diligence, because “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” If we store up God’s word and delight in it, we will speak truth.

Second, we must remember that when Satan fills us, we will lie, but when the Holy Spirit controls us, we will speak truth. So Paul says in Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit”—that is, come under his complete control. When the Holy Spirit fills us, he will control our tongues and we will speak truth. The Bible says no man can control the tongue; either the Holy Spirit controls it, or Satan does. The unbeliever is controlled by Satan; thus, he always lies, for he cannot tell the truth. His whole life is a lie and he speaks lies, particularly as far as eternal issues are concerned.

Acts 2:4 says of the believers on the day of Pentecost, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak.” Let us, then, be very clear: Lie destroys married life, community life, family life, and church life, but truth builds these relationships up. First Corinthians 3:17 warns us, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” If any person, through the sin of lying, tries to destroy the community of God, God will destroy him.

2. Be Angry

The second imperative is found in verse 26: “Be ye angry” (KJV). It is a present imperative, meaning we are continually to be angry, not occasionally, but all the time. Christians ought to be an angry people. God is angry at sin and evil. Even so, God’s people ought to be angry at what God opposes in the world.

In the Old Testament we read about Hezekiah and Josiah, who, through their anger, destroyed idols and cleansed the country of Israel of pagan worship. In Psalm 119:53 we read, “Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law.” Jesus Christ himself became angry at evil and wickedness. John 2:14-16 tells us, “In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”’ Mark 3:5 says of Jesus, “He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts . . .” In other words, he was angry at the people’s unbelief in the true and living God. In Matthew 23, Jesus calls the Pharisees and leaders of Israel snakes, hypocrites, blind guides, and fools.

Christians should be angry. Today we are exhorted by the secular world to be “tolerant,” but to be “tolerant” means to have no convictions. It means to forsake the truth of the gospel and stop witnessing to the truth of Jesus Christ. It means we do not consider evil to be all that bad. To be “tolerant” is to accept moral relativism. It means we can tolerate sin in ourselves. That is exactly why so many people like tolerance.

But the Bible tells us we must be angry at sin, especially the sin we see in ourselves, and take radical measures to eliminate it. If your right eye offends you, gouge it out! If your right hand offends you, cut it off! That is being angry at sin. We must speak against evil, not only in society, but also in the church. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

3. Sin Not

We are told in verse 26, “Be ye angry, and sin not” (KJV). This is also a present imperative. It means do not sin at all, especially in anger. Even righteous indignation can get out of control and become sinful anger. Therefore, James says we must be slow to anger. When we lose our temper, we are no longer exercising holy anger. When we lose control, we lose rationality and act as animals, biting and devouring others. Therefore, Scripture tells us, “Be ye angry, but sin not.”

Additionally, we are told that all anger must cease at sunset. Even righteous anger must be settled as soon as possible, and definitely before sundown. Do not go to bed angry, but be reconciled as soon as you can, for anger, like manna, will breed worms if it is kept overnight. That is why we have to be careful. Even righteous anger, when nursed, can turn into full-blown, reprehensible sin.

4. Give No Place to the Devil

Verse 27 says, “Do not give place to the devil.” It means we are not to hold on to anger. As we said, anger nursed surely leads to sin and negatively affects our married life, family life, and church life. The devil loves to be near angry people so that he can push them over the edge to destruction. So if we hold on to anger, we are leaving the door open for the devil to come in.

In Genesis 4 we read that God did not accept Cain’s sacrifice because he did not offer it by faith. In verses 5-7 we read, “So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’” Cain did not listen to God’s counsel. Instead, he held on to his anger, came under the devil’s control, and killed his brother. But James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

5. Steal No Longer

The fifth command is stated in verse 28: “He who steals, let him steal no longer.” It is a negative command: Stop stealing!

Christians are not perfect; they do sin. They may steal, lie, and even murder. But when they do, they repent and forsake their sin, like David did. If a person refuses to repent and forsake his sin, then his claim is not true; he is not a Christian. He is the same old pagan who just happens to be in a church.

What is the thief told to do? Stop stealing immediately. It does not say, “He who steals, let him go and fast and pray and think about not stealing.” No, the will of God is clearly revealed in the eighth commandment: “Thou shalt not steal.” The Christian knows stealing is wrong and a violation of God’s law; therefore, he should stop stealing. How long should he stop? For the rest of his life: “Let him steal no longer.”

First Corinthians 6:9-10 warns us, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” We are not to take that which belongs to others. We are not to steal from the IRS or customs. We are not to steal from our employer; rather, we must put in a good day’s work for him. The employer is not to steal from the employee by giving poor wages. We are not to steal from God in terms of tithes and offerings, nor should we steal through being idle, for the idle man is a thief. We must teach our children to work so that they will not be dependent on us or others when they grow up.

6. Let Him Work

So the negative command is: “Let him steal no longer.” In the sixth imperative we are given the positive: “Let him work”; or, as it in the Greek, “Let him labor.” The word iskopiatô, hard work. This is in keeping with the fourth commandment, which tells us to labor six days a week.

Man is to live, not by stealing, nor by handouts, but by the sweat of his brow. Such hard work gives him dignity. He is to work hard with his hands. Here we see the dignity of manual labor. Jesus Christ himself worked with his hands as a carpenter. However, this is not a prohibition against working with our brains as well.

So the former thief is to do something honest and good. Not only is he to steal no longer, but he is to find work immediately. Each person must labor to support himself; he is not to depend on others. Additionally, a man is to support his family, for 1 Timothy 5:8 tells us that if a man does not support his family, he is worse than an unbeliever.

And what is the purpose of working hard? “That he may have something to share with those in need,” especially the needy in the household of faith, the church community. Giving, then, is our motivation for getting. We work hard, not to amass wealth so that we can purchase better and bigger things or fund a better retirement for ourselves, but so that we can share with others in the church who are in need—the poor, sick, and disabled; those who cannot work; those who are old and infirm; single parents who are taking care of their children.

We see this idea of working to give illustrated in Acts 2 and 4, where the early church took care of their poor and needy in this manner. And in Acts 20:34-35 we find Paul telling the elders of the church of Ephesus, “You yourselves know that these hands of mine”—and we can imagine him stretching out his hands to them—”have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Luke 6:38 speaks of the blessedness of giving: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.”

When the church in Thessalonica heard that Jesus Christ was coming again, some of the people stopped working. But even as they were waiting for Jesus, they were living off of other people who continued to work. Therefore Paul admonished them in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat.’” That is a good rule to put on our refrigerators. Paul continues in verse 11, “We hear that some among you are idle.” Yet these idlers were getting food from those who worked. “They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.”

A lazy Christian is a thief. A lazy student is a thief. A lazy son or daughter is a thief. Christians must work hard so that they can share with others who are in real need.

7. No Unwholesome Talk

In verse 29 we find the seventh imperative: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Speech is one thing that distinguishes humans from animals. Language is one aspect of our being that is created in the image and likeness of God. As Dr. John Stott says, “Cows can moo, dogs bark, donkeys bray, pigs grunt, lambs bleat, lions roar, monkeys squeal, and birds sing, but only human beings can speak” (John R. W. Stott, The Message of Ephesians [Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979], 188). The words of unbelievers can be like rotten fruit or putrid meat; useless and obscene, their speech can pollute, corrupt, and destroy those who hear it. Yet this is understandable, because unbelievers have no capacity or freedom to stop unwholesome talk from coming out of their mouths.

But a Christian has the freedom to stop words of corruption from coming out of his mouth. He alone has the power to stop speaking corrosive words. As a man of truth, he fills his heart with truth, and therefore, out of the abundance of the heart, he will speak truth. Having filled his heart with the word of God, a Christian will speak the word of God to others, conveying to them the grace of God by his words and strengthening them, encouraging them, guiding them, and building them up.

First Corinthians 14 speaks about the spiritual gift of prophecy. We should prophesy in the language of the people rather than in tongues, so that our words may bring edification to the hearers. In other words, the purpose of prophecy is to build up the body of Christ. Just as we are to help those in need with our money, so also we are to help the needy with our words. That is why we have a responsibility in the church community to speak wholesome words. We are members of one another. God has given us his word, which we are to use appropriately, as the occasion demands. As we begin to understand people and their needs, we must speak carefully, using words that build up.

We see this illustrated in Isaiah 50 where we find a prophecy concerning the Messiah: “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught” (v. 4). Jesus tells us: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). So the Lord Jesus Christ was wakened every morning, as the boy Samuel was, and was instructed by the Father so that he could, in turn, speak words of grace to sustain the weary. (PGM) As Christians, we also have the ability to speak words that will encourage others.

We read of the Messiah’s work in Isaiah 42:3: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.” The Lord Jesus Christ helps people who are weak, miserable sinners. He does so through the gospel. Listen to Paul’s counsel to the elders of Ephesus: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace” (Acts 20:32). This is speaking about the gospel. “I commit you to God and to the word of his grace . . . .” And in Ephesians 5:18-19 we are told, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.” When we are filled with the Spirit of God, we will speak the word of God. And this word of God is the word of grace, which will encourage people.

8. Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

The eighth imperative is found in verse 30: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” This idea of grieving the Holy Spirit is not found only in the New Testament (see Isaiah 63:10, for instance). Throughout their history, the people of Israel grieved the Holy Spirit of God.

How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? By sin. Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit, both individually and corporately. Having regenerated us, the Holy Spirit becomes the honored guest in our lives, our Lord and resident Boss. His mission is to make us holy and blameless. He is called to pneuma to hagion tou theou—the Holy Spirit of God. We should pay attention to that adjective “holy.” He is also called the Spirit of holiness. He is not an influence or a force; he is a person.

This infinite Third Person of the Trinity has come to dwell in us. The greatest difference between a believer and an unbeliever is that the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer forever. And every sin that we commit—whether sin of thought, word, or deed, sin of commission or omission—offends and pains the Holy Spirit.

There is a concept in theology called the impassibility of God, which means that God is unaffected by creation and independent of it. That is true. But it is also true that God is affected by our sin because the Scripture declares so. Therefore God is independent and impassible, but he is also affected by our sin, so much so that he weeps over it. Did you know that your sin causes pain to the Holy Spirit? When you do sin, have you ever thought, “I am offending the Holy Spirit and treating with contempt him who dwells in me”?

How can a Christian be truly happy when the Holy Spirit is weeping? No wonder some Christians are depressed, miserable, gloomy, and lacking any true joy. They have sinned so much that the Holy Spirit is grieving in them. The opposite also is true. Every time we do an act of righteousness, the Holy Spirit rejoices in us and we also rejoice.

As we obey the Holy Spirit and are led by him, we prove ourselves to be children of God. But what happens if we pay no attention to the Holy Spirit and grieve him by continuing in sin? Does the Holy Spirit leave us? No, not if we are true Christians. Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and that same Holy Spirit is going to see to it that we are made holy and blameless.

The Holy Spirit will deal with our sin and it will not be pleasant. Hebrews 12:5-10 tells us:

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

The Holy Spirit has the power to discipline us, and he will do so. Another scripture which speaks about this idea of discipline is 1 Corinthians 11:30: “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.”

So the Holy Spirit is capable of bringing us to humility and repentance through discipline. But he never abandons the true Christians, as he abandoned Saul. He is our seal, and he will make us holy, and bring us to God in perfect holiness.

9. Get Rid Of . . .

The ninth imperative is found in verse 31: “Get rid of . . .” followed by a list of six evil things. We are to take each of these six things and throw them as far from us as possible, just as David took the stone, put it in the sling and threw it as far as he could, with all his power. So the idea here is that, if you are a Christian, you can do this. Your condition is posse non peccare—possible not to sin. You have the freedom to stop sinning and start doing what is right; it is within your ability as a new creation in Christ. Throw off these things once for all!

What are the six things we have to throw away?

1. Bitterness. In the Greek it is pikria, or persistent sourness of the spirit. There are some people who appear to be baptized in lemon juice. They are bitter toward God, toward their wife or husband, toward their brothers and sisters—bitter toward everything. Bitterness is an inner condition. There are four things in this list that describe our inner condition—the first three and the last one.

Bitterness is persistent sourness of the spirit. Bitter people refuse to be reconciled. They don’t want to get rid of their problem; they want to keep it.

There are people in the church today who don’t want to get rid of their problem. They enjoy it, because they can control others through their bitterness. They love nursing a grievance, or an imagined grievance. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says bitter people are the saddest people.

But what are we to do? We are commanded to take this pikria and throw it away, once for all, because, as Christians, we have the ability to do so.

2. Rage. The Greek word is thumos, which is wild, violent rage deep within us that hasn’t yet exploded. There are some people in whom everything is always churning within. That is the idea of thumos. So this wild, violent rage that is deep within us—we should take it and throw it far, far away.

3. Anger. The word is orgê. This is speaking about sinful anger, a settled animosity toward brothers and sisters. Remember Herodias, the wife of Herod’s brother? When Herod married her, John the Baptist told Herod, “This is not right. The law prohibits you to do this.” Thus, Herodias held a grudge against John and eventually had him killed.

4. Brawling. Next in the list is kraugê, or clamor. It means this pikria, thumos, andorgê are no longer inside; they have now erupted in public yelling and screaming. The individual manifesting this evil has completely lost his rationality and has become a beast, exhibiting animal behavior. He is out of control and shameless. He doesn’t care who hears him. He doesn’t worry that the children are there. He doesn’t worry that visitors are there. He doesn’t worry about anything; he just explodes.

5. Slander. The word is blaspêmia, which is cursing God. Such a person curses God and slanders brothers and sisters, destroying their reputation, especially behind their backs. This is again the public manifestation of the inner problem.

6. Every form of malice. This last one goes with the first three as being more of an inner attitude. Kakia is the Greek word for badness, which describes the inner nature. It is badheartedness, a wicked desire to see brothers destroyed and plotting in the heart to destroy them. This is malice.

What are we to do with all this badness? Take it and throw it out! All of these six evils destroy community life, married life, and family life. That is why they should be thrown out. We must throw away all that harms the community, pains the Holy Spirit, and makes our own life wretched. We can do so by the expulsive power of the new life and the Holy Spirit.

10. You Must Become . . .

The last imperative is found in verse 32. The NIV translation says “Be . . . ,” but the correct translation is “Become . . . .” “You continually must become . . . .” Having thrown out the negative things, now we must take positive action to build up the community of God.

1. Be kind. The word is chrêstoi. This means to be kind to others in the community, especially those whom you have wronged before. It is not just having an abstract perception of being kind. Rather, it is manifesting kindness by helping other people and thus building up the community.

2. Be compassionate. An unbeliever is self-centered and hardhearted, but a Christian is tenderhearted. Under the new covenant, he has been given a heart of flesh, a heart that feels, so that now he loves God and loves his brothers and sisters, and shares their burdens. When he hears about the problem of a brother or a sister, he will not walk away; he will sympathize with them. But he will also go beyond feeling and, like the good Samaritan, go out of his way to help and bless them.

3. Forgive each other. We are always to be forgiving toward one another. The parallel passage is Colossians 3:13, which says, “Bear with each other and forgivewhatever grievances you may have against one another.” What an amazing statement: “whatever grievances you may have against one another”! Whether big or small, whatever grievance we have, we are to forgive, because God in Christ forgave all our sins. When we trusted in Christ we were justified and God at that moment forgave all our sins—past, present, and future. On the basis of that, we must also forgive each other all grievances. We are not to follow the example of the servant in Matthew 18:23-35.

What about You?

If you are not a Christian, you can only sin. You have no freedom to do otherwise. Your condition is non posse non peccare—not possible not to sin. If this is true of you, repent and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Then you will be able to live a victorious Christian life. The Holy Spirit himself will come and dwell in you, enabling you to live a new life.

If you are a Christian, yet you are sinning in any of these ways, then you are destroying the fellowship of your married life, your family life, and your church life. Beyond that, you are grieving the Holy Spirit, and beyond that, you are harming yourself. It may be that you are depressed because of these issues. I pray that you will think these things through and repent of your sins, so that you can be brought to great joy. Stop sinning; you are able to do so. Put off the graveclothes of the old life and put on the garments of proper behavior of the new life, that the Holy Spirit may rejoice in you. Amen.